How Does Chillingworth Forgive In The Scarlet Letter

Could one small choice to not forgive change a man’s life so much that he turns into a completely different man? In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth, once a man of study and education, turn into a devil seeking to destroy. Though Chillingworth had not been a man of warm affection, his home in Amsterdam with his wife Hester Prynne was at one time a happy time (203). Chillingworth was deformed and misshapen (83). However Chillingworth was not looked down on by others, a townsman in Boston said Roger Chillingworth was, “ A certain learned man, English by birth, but who had long dwelt in Amsterdam, whence, some good time ago was minded to cross over and cast in his lot with us of Massachusetts” (68). However

After hearing this, Chillingworth is furious with Hester Prynne but also with the man who has done this. He decides to find the man who had done this and seek revenge, yet he does not reveal his relation to Hester Prynne and forces her to keep it a secret as well or the man she had committed adultery with would be destroyed. One small choice to not forgive but instead seek revenge changes Chillingworth into an evil physician an a devil who seeks to destroy. Roger Chillingworth is first seen in The Scarlet Letter by Hester Prynne while she is standing on the scaffold with her child, Pearl (66-67). Hester recognizes him and he notices her reconciliation and motions for her to remain silent and not acknowledge him (67). Chillingworth does not know what his wife has done and enquires of a townsperson what she has done (67). He learns that she has committed adulty and is refusing to reveal the man’s name. Chillingworth was not pleased an seeks for an opportunity to speak with his wife Hester Prynne. After standing all day on the scaffold Hester and Pearl are distressed and a physician is called. Roger Chillingworth however is a physician is is